"Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how a person's various social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege."
This topic focuses on the development and evolution of intersectionality, tracing the origins of the concept and the various movements and research that contributed to its formation.
Intersectionality Theory: Intersectionality theory is an academic framework that recognizes the interconnections between multiple forms of social oppression, including race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and ability. The theory aims to highlight how power and privilege are structured through these intersecting dimensions of social identity.
Social Identity Theory: Social identity theory explores the ways in which individuals develop and maintain their sense of identity within their social and cultural contexts. It also examines how group identities are constructed and maintained, and how they influence social interactions and perceptions.
Feminist Theory: Feminist theory focuses on the ways in which gender inequality and oppression are perpetuated in society. It seeks to challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and advocate for women's rights and gender equality.
Critical Race Theory: Critical race theory is an academic framework that explores the intersections between race, power, and social inequality. It seeks to uncover the ways in which race is embedded in social structures and institutions and how this perpetuates racial inequality.
LGBTQ+ Studies: LGBTQ+ studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that explores issues related to sexuality and gender identity. It seeks to challenge heteronormativity and promote acceptance and inclusivity for all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Postcolonial Theory: Postcolonial theory examines the social, cultural, and political legacies of colonialism and imperialism. It aims to critique the Eurocentric perspectives that have traditionally dominated historical narratives and promote decolonization and self-determination for marginalized communities.
Disability Studies: Disability studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that explores the experiences of individuals with disabilities, as well as the social, political, and economic barriers that they face. It seeks to challenge ableism and promote accessibility and inclusivity for all individuals, regardless of their abilities.
Ethnic Studies: Ethnic studies encompasses a wide range of interdisciplinary fields of study that examine the experiences and contributions of ethnic and racial minority groups. It seeks to challenge racism and promote cultural understanding and inclusivity.
Class Studies: Class studies examines the ways in which social and economic inequality are structured along class lines. It seeks to critique the capitalist system that produces and perpetuates class inequalities, and promote economic justice and equality.
Social Movements: Social movements are organized collective efforts to bring about social and political change. Intersectionality theory insists on the importance of considering social movements' interrelated nature and their impact on the marginalised.
Colorism: Colorism refers to the ways in which skin color and racialized features are used to discriminate within racially marginalized communities. It is a widely discussed phenomenon in the context of the oppression of the Black and Latinx communities.
Indigenous Studies: Indigenous studies centers on the experiences of Indigenous peoples around the world. It seeks to promote Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty, as well as challenge settler colonialism and its legacies.
Postmodernism: Postmodernism refers to an array of intersections between artistic, literary, and intellectual movements. It aims to critique established orders and totalizing theories of truth while emphasizing the importance of language, power, and interpretation in shaping historical understandings.
Immigration and Citizenship Studies: Immigration and citizenship studies examine the social, cultural, and political contexts in which people have migrated and become citizens. The perspectives it employs often seek to shed light on the ways in which nationalism, citizenship, and border controls are entangled with intersecting forms of oppression.
Resistance and Solidarity Movements: Resistance and solidarity movements challenge social, political, economic, and ecological injustices, ultimately shedding light on people's potential to come together towards a goal they perceive as one of equity and justice.
Popular Culture and Representations: Popular culture and representation explore representations of marginalized peoples within popular media and the general public's perceptions of these social groups. It also examines how forms of expressions such as language, clothing, music or films, interact with notions of power and identity.
Black Studies: Black studies or Africana studies evolved initially to study and explore the range of experiences and conditions of African descendants in the United States. Its scholarship areas are based on diverse interdisciplinary research traditions and seeks to reject anti-Blackness.
Environmentalism and Climate Justice: Environmentalism and climate justice focus on the interconnectedness of power and social identity and how it plays out when it comes to environmental inequalities, the impact of climate change, and the intersection of social identities with particular forms of ecological degradation.
Critical Whiteness Studies: Critical whiteness studies critique the ways in which whiteness is constructed and maintained as a normative, unmarked, and privileged social identity. It interrogates how white privilege shapes social structures and institutions in ways that marginalize racialized communities.
Health Equity: Health equity centers the examination of the social, economic, and political factors that contribute to health outcomes, including the interactions between marginalization, social and structural systems, health and identity. It also seeks to uplift the need of promoting the wellbeing of excluded and marginalized communities.
Early Intersectionality: Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s, the term initially referred to the nexus of race, gender, and class oppression facing black women;.
Black Feminist Thought: Black feminist scholars like Patricia Hill Collins have explored the theoretical underpinnings of intersectionality to examine how identities intersect and influence experiences of oppression and privilege;.
Queer of Color Critique: This scholarship emerged in the late 1990s and sought to explore the relationship between race, gender, and sexuality, particularly in the context of people of color in the queer community. Scholars like José Esteban Muñoz and Jasbir Puar have been instrumental in the development of this area of study;.
Transnational Feminism: Transnational feminist scholars like Chandra Mohanty and bell hooks have sought to address how global processes like colonization, imperialism, and globalization intersect with gender, race, and class;.
Disability Studies: Disability scholars have explored the ways in which disability intersects with other aspects of identity and oppression, and how ableism impacts people with disabilities within society;.
Indigenous Studies: Indigenous scholars have investigated how colonisation, racism, and other forms of oppression intersect with indigenous identity and culture, and how this impacts indigenous communities;.
Critical Race Theory: This interdisciplinary field focuses on the ways in which race intersects with other aspects of identity and how this shapes experiences of marginalization, particularly in the context of law and policy;.
Postcolonial Studies: This field explores the impact of colonialism on non-European societies and how this has intersected with other forms of oppression, particularly gender, race, and class.
"Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, and physical appearance."
"These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing."
"Intersectional feminism aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's differing experiences and identities."
"The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989."
"Intersectionality opposes analytical systems that treat each axis of oppression in isolation."
"In this framework, for instance, discrimination against black women cannot be explained as a simple combination of misogyny and racism, but as something more complicated."
"Intersectionality engages in similar themes as triple oppression, which is the oppression associated with being a poor or immigrant woman of color."
"Criticism includes the framework's tendency to reduce individuals to specific demographic factors, and its use as an ideological tool against other feminist theories."
"Critics have characterized the framework as ambiguous and lacking defined goals."
"As it is based in standpoint theory, critics say the focus on subjective experiences can lead to contradictions and the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the theory of intersectionality."
"An analysis of academic articles published through December 2019 found that there are no widely adopted quantitative methods to investigate research questions informed by intersectionality."
"The analysis ... provided recommendations on analytic best practices for future research."
"An analysis of academic articles published through May 2020 found that intersectionality is frequently misunderstood when bridging theory into quantitative methodology."
"In 2022, a quantitative approach to intersectionality was proposed based on information theory, specifically synergistic information."
"In this framing, intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome (e.g. income, etc.) that can only be learned when multiple identities (e.g. race and sex) are known together."
"Intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome [...] that can [...] not [be] extractable from analysis of the individual identities considered separately."
"Critics [argue] the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"Intersectionality broadens the scope of the first and second waves of feminism, [...] to include the different experiences of women of color, poor women, immigrant women, and other groups."